Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-05-28

would have been the most brilliant achieve
ment Of President Grants administration,
and before this the last barrier that inter.
cepts the natural and healthful flow of trade
between Canada and the United States would
have been removed. The advantages Of
such reciprocal relation would have become
SO manifest that not vestige Of our system
OF custom houses and tolls levied upon COM
merce would remain as witnesses OF q sys-
tenn which had nothing to commend it, and
had its origin in the strained relations which
obtained between England and the United
States.
BENEFITS OF COMMERCIAL FREEDOM.
"In discussing this question we will Of
course bear in mind the physical conditions
with which we have to treat. The territory
OF Canada is interlocked with our own. The
rivers and lakes cross the boundary lines and
are our common highways of traffic and
trade. Their public highway are ours: The
relation therefore of our territory to theirs,
the location of our rivers, the facilities for
conducting exchanges, all suggest and pro-
test in favor of unhampered reciprocal trade
The resources of Canada in that which con-
stitutes material wealth, her supply of ma
terials needed in the various avocations which
employ our people, are boundless. On the
other hand we have infinite variety and
exhaustless supply of things largely indis-
pensable to the comfort and enjoyment OF
our Canadian neighbors. ALI these suggest
the advantages to be derived from free COM
mercial intercourse. We are not dealing
with people across the ocean, but our neigh
bors and kinsmen. l insist that unless it
be the mission of both governments to sacri-
flee the interests of the many for the aggran-
dlsement ofthe few, the present system which
compels our Canadian neighbors to pay fifty
millions of dollars year for the privilege Of
supplying to citizens Of the United States
articles indispensable to their comfort and
DrOgnnrltU xuh ha
Of the United States to pay like sum into
the public treasury of Canada for the privi-
lege of doing like service for Canadians living
across an imaginary line, is absolutely de-
fenceless and wholly without excuse"
TRADE BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES.
To illustrate the character of the trade be-
tween the two countries, the speaker sub
Canada and the exports to the Dominion
from the year 1850, to and including the year
1878, covering the period of partial reci-
procity as established in 1854, and which
terminated in 1855. He went on:
During that period Canada, of her products,
Of which consisted of lumber or tim
exported to Canada sS4s, 100000 worth
OF our stock in trade. | should be
glad to learn how either Canadian or Yankee
levied upon the goods so exported and i'm
ported. should be glad to learn just how
any blessing that attached to paying one
third of the value of the goods so exchanged
Injured to the benefit of any considerable
number of our people. The men who used
paid price largely in excess Of their value
and only because they were produced across
an imaginary line drawn from East to West,
and which marks the Northern frontier OF
the United States and the Southern frontier
Of Canada. Certainly the philosophy of the
doctrine of protection has no application
here"
Mr.. Butterworth presented another tabu-
lar statement of the rates Of duty paid ON
these exchanges. They range from eleven to
one hundred and fifty-five per cent. ad valo-
rem.
What are the objections to the removal of
this burden? hear of none except as they
relate purely and solely to some local inter
ests. It is proper to call attention to the fact
that one of the leading statesmen of the day,
one who has filled possibly larger place in
the public view than almost any other man
of our day. allude to James G.. Blaine-has
advocated, and most ably, commercial
the South American states. His PROPOSE
ton has met with general favor, nor has It
been treated as party question. If great
advantages are to be derived from such .
| union, how much greater and more import
ant are the advantages to be gained from an
ately upon our border, to whom we are
allied BY ties stronger than those which
relate merely to commerce, and with whom
our trade, although they number but five
| millions, is more than the trade with the
forty millions lying south of us and with
whom the commercial union is proposed.
| submit q statement which indicates how
much more valuable to the United States a.
q market Canada is than all the realms lying
south of the Rio Grande, including Mexico
and the South American states.
During the year 1885 the United States
sold TO ali the Central and South American
States but $27 5000 in round numbers,
and to all countries lying south Of the Rio
Grande in the aggregate $64, OOO, 900. To the
4, 0O0, 900 of people on the south we sold
$64, 000, 900, while to the 100000 Of Ca
nadians we sold over $50, 000,0O0
If our hampered and restricted trade with
5000, 900 Canadians is over $50, 0OO, 900, what
will be the magnitude of our commerce in
that direction when the blockadeis removed,
and when our neighbors shall number
25,OO0, 900 Of people?
NO FEAR OF COMPETITION.
Do American manufacturers fear competi-
ton? Certainly not. Do they and our mer-
chants desire the Canadian market with the
great possibilities that open up before them
III vi I'll CS1ioh' OCi Ioiiily lucy W. DO63
the American farmer fear Competition with
the Canadian farmer? It is simply impossi-
BILE. There could be no conflict Of interest.
On the contrary, experience abundantly at
tests that with every avenue of trade and
commerce between the sources of supply in
the United States and the markets of Canada
and between every source of supply in Cam
ada and the markets of the United States
opened up, and uninterrupted, q new i'm
petus would be given to every branch oftrade
and industry, and a new era of prosperity
for both nations would dawn upon us.
1t must not be forgotten that there are
affecting the farmer certain conditions which
no system of protection can control-the
rain end the sunshine. His crops depend
upon the earlier and the latter rains, nor
can any system of law increase the yield Of
his ground in the presence of drouth or a
superabundance of rain; but the products
of the factory can be controlled, the output
limited, and the prices fixed. His competi-
tors for the European market are not in
Canada, but in India and Russia. Canada
only produced the past year about
in this country. There are special
interests which, of course, will be affected.
That the fishing interest will be seriously
crippled, l do not believe, nor can I agree
that that nursery of seamen and school
which supplies the army or the militia of the
sea will suffer by reason of fair competition
between the Canadians and the men of New
England who go down to the sea to catch
fish If with similar conditions and fair
competition we cannot hold our own on sea
and land the trouble must be found in con-